title: Molecular diversity of fungal communities in agricultural soils from Lower Austria.
abstract: A culture-independent survey of fungal diversity in four arable soils and one grassland in Lower Austria was conducted by RFLP and sequence analysis of clone libraries of the partial ITS/LSU-region. All soils were dominated by the ascomycetous orders Sordariales, Hypocreales and Helotiales, taxa that are known from traditional cultivation approaches to occur in agricultural soils. The most abundant genus in the investigated soils wasTetracladium, a hyphomycete which has been described as occurring predominantly in aquatic habitats, but was also found in agricultural soils. Additionally, soil clone group I (SCGI), a subphylum at the base of the Ascomycota with so far no cultivated members, was identified at high frequency in the grassland soil but was below detection limit in the four arable fields. In addition to this striking difference, general fungal community parameters like richness, diversity and evenness were similar between cropland and grassland soils. The presented data provide a fungal community inventory of agricultural soils and reveal the most prominent species.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Genetics and Cell Biology, Fungal Genetics and Genomics Unit, Austrian Institute of Technology and BOKU University Vienna, 1190 Vienna, Austria ; CBS-KNAW, Fungal Physiology, Uppsalalaan 8, NL-3584 CT Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Sylvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Klaubauf
authors.forename: Erich
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Inselsbacher
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zechmeister-Boltenstern
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wanek
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gottsberger
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Strauss
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gorfer
keywords: Agricultural soil; Diversity; Fungal communities; SCGI; Soil clone group I